M-commerce or mobile commerce transactions are continuing to grow at a fast pace. The term primarily includes the purchase and sale of a wide range of goods and services, online banking, payment of bills, delivery of information and much more.

“In India, the mobile Internet traffic now outweighs personal computer traffic. With increasing penetration of smartphones, India is all set to be a massive market for m-commerce. The marketing strategies for e-commerce companies will increasingly be tailored to suit the rising adoption of smartphones, social media and improving customer experience across touch points and platforms,” Amazon India Vice President and Country Manager Amit Agarwal told PTI.

To bring more light on how to scale-up the m-commerce business, industry leaders, experts and influencers hailing from different walks of life shared their insightful inputs during the panel discussion on ‘Shop with a tap: Scaling up m-commerce’ at the E-Tailing and Travel Commerce Conference 2015, IAMAI which is being held at The Lalit, New Delhi.

He started off the panel discussion by stating that there are a lot of challenges that all of the major businesses have faced in terms of scaling up their transactions through mobiles. They discussed about those issues in detail. During the discussion, he put forth a question to one of the panelists Pushpinder Singh viz. ‘Is app only a restriction for scaling or not?’

Here is what the panelists on the panel had to say in response to the questions posed by the session moderator:

Shamik Sharma, Chief Product & Technology Officer, Myntra

To the question posed based on the screen size pertaining to mobile transactions, he said that their company does not see the screen size as the major issue, they rather say internet is the sole reason. There are UX problems, that needs to be solved and they are solvable.

Talking about the platform or transaction to the app only concept, in the initial days, there was a drop-off. Even though they lost some users, but they made more users in the form of mobile app users. Additionally, he stated that if you are a start-up then it is feasible to opt for mobile app. Moreover, it is important to make systems reliable. Furthermore, he stated that focus must be led more on the channels of the future as an aid scale of reach.

Satyam Bansal, Director, Mobile Alliances, Flipkart

He quoted that it is essential to make strategical decisions such that shopping should not only remain a traditional experience. Of course, it is not feasible to do that with a laptop in our hands. To overcome that, there is mobile device, which is a super computer in our hands today and that allows us to do all the things with utmost ease and comfort.

Deepak Sharma, Head of Digital Initiatives, Kotak Mahindra Bank

Deepak started off by stating that with the entire space shifting to app, from a bank’s perspective, payment is a much broader concept in the e-commerce, specifically in the m-commerce space. He quoted that close to about 1/3rd of the payment goes to about e-commerce transactions.

Thus, for a bank, web is going to be a large option in the near future. Even though mobile is growing at a fast pace, but for banks, web is still going to prove as a much more better platform than mobile usage for payments or other transactions. A lot of customers are not willing to leave their credentials either on web or on their mobiles.

Pushpinder Singh, Founder, Travelkhana

Pushpinder state that his company Travelkhana has actually seen the users having a particular experience. Their’s is a food on the move company style. Herein, mobile becomes a feasible option to make purchases, while on the move.

To the question posed by the session moderator Anurag Singh, ‘Is app only a restriction for scaling or not?’ he responded that there is 15% more traffic, when they talk about the traffic generated through mobile apps. It is absolutely mind-blowing as compared to the other platforms.